Even Avengers: Endgame's Writers Can't Agree On What Happened To Red Skull

In Joe Johnston's 2011 World War II action flick "Captain America: The First Avenger," the title hero (Chris Evans) had to face off against a wicked villain nicknamed the Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). The Red Skull had been physically enhanced by advanced super-steroids, but the drugs did a number on his skin, leaving his face bright red and kind of skull-looking. The Red Skull was also the evil Nazi leader of Hydra, a super-Nazi group. In their bid to take over the world, the Red Skull and Hydra had built hundreds of high-tech laser weapons, hoping to use them to take over the world. All the weapons needed was a power supply. Curious that Hydra scientists could initially build working high-tech weapons without a power supply, but "America" abides by simple comic book logic. 

The Red Skull eventually gets his hands on a mysterious glowing space widget called the Cosmic Cube, a device that can easily power super weapons. At the end of the film, however, he mishandles the Cube, accidentally opens an aperture in space-time, and gets sucked into the cosmos. Audiences wouldn't learn what happened to the Red Skull until the events of the 2018 film "Avengers: Infinity War." 

Somehow — and it is never explained how — the Red Skull wound up standing at the edge of a magical cliff on a distant planet. He is some kind of cosmic guardian now, and if someone throws a friend off of the cliff, the Red Skull is authorized to hand them a magical gem.

And not even the writers of "Infinity War" can fully explain Red Skull's job. On the commentary track for "Avengers: Endgame," Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus can be heard audibly shrugging their shoulders on the matter.

In "Infinity War," Red Skull explains the rules of the magic cliff he has been tasked with overseeing, and it makes about as much sense as a video game. One can have the mystical Soul Stone, but only if one hucks something they care about over the cliff. The genocidal villain Thanos (Josh Brolin) hucks his daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldaña) off the cliff. Then, in "Avengers: Endgame," Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and the Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) go back in time to get the Stone for themselves. Black Widow hucks herself off the cliff. 

At the end of the movie, after Thanos has been defeated and all is right with the world, Captain America travels back in time again to put the Soul Stone back where Hawkeye found it. Does that mean he gave it to the Red Skull? Surely that would be an awkward encounter. 

The two screenwriters and "Endgame" directors Anthony and Joe Russo, in a casual fashion, debated what might have happened with Red Skull, Captain America, and the Soul Stone. 

Anthony asked: "Speaking of Red Skull, have you guys thought about whether or not Cap runs into Red Skull when he's returning the Soul Stone?" McFeely noted that "He would have to," thinking that Red Skull had been "released from his bonds," that is: was allowed to quit his job as a cliff-watching stone distribution agent. 

Markus, however, stated clearly that the Red Skull was still trapped, saying "He's the guardian." McFeely pointed out, however, that if Red Skull has no Soul Stone to distribute, what is left to guard? By way of ending the conversation, Anthony Russo merely said "It's fun to think about!" 

I suppose we must draw our own conclusions.